Request for Continued Examination

On January 9, 2015, the Federal Register published final rules implementing changes to patent term adjustment (PTA) in view of Novartis v. Lee, which the Federal Circuit decided last January. The new rules affect patents...more

The USPTO has published final Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) rules addressing the treatment of Requests for Continued Examination (RCEs) under the Federal Circuit decision in Novartis v. Lee. The final rules create a new type...more

For patents granted on applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, the enforceable patent term begins on the day the patent issues and generally expires 20 years from the earliest effective filing date of the application. ...more

The USPTO has published proposed rules for calculating Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) for applications in which a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) has been filed, after the Federal Circuit held in Novartis v. Lee that...more

Novartis v. Lee and Exelixis v. Lee (2013-1160, 2013-1179, 2013-1175, Fed. Cir. 2014) -
Summary:
For a patent application issuing after 3 years, an RCE filed at any time during prosecution will reduce patent...more

Recently, in Novartis v. Lee (2013-1160, Fed. Cir., Jan. 15, 2014), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revised the method by which the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) calculates...more

A recent ruling by the Federal Circuit in Novartis AG v. Lee resolved the issues raised in the Exelixis I, Exelixis II and Novartis decisions regarding the effect of a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) on patent term...more

On January 15, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Novartis v. Lee (No. 2013-1160, -1179), holding that time spent in “continued examination” is excluded from a patent term adjustment even where...more

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just announced that the After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) has been extended to December 14, 2013. The AFCP 2.0 was previously scheduled to expire on September...more

Most of the Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) cases being filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia involve patents issuing from applications in which a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) was...more

At the end of June, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filed its reply brief with the Federal Circuit in Exelixis, Inc. v. Rea. The appeal involves two decisions by the Eastern District of Virginia involving the impact of...more

In a Federal Register Notice published on May 17, 2013, the USPTO announced After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) as part of its ongoing efforts to “reduce pendency by reducing the number of Requests for...more

In December, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (77 Fed. Reg. 72830) seeking public feedback on Request for Continued Examination (RCE) practice. The notice provided a series of...more

April 15, 2013 is an important date insofar as Australian patent prosecution is concerned. On this date ‘new law’ will come into force that will apply to patent applications for which examination has not been requested by...more

Next week (February 4, 2013) is the deadline for submitting comments in response to the USPTO’s request for feedback on Request for Continued Examination (RCE) practice. (This article provides more information on the request...more

Reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its sixth annual list of top biotech/pharma patent stories. For 2012, we identified fifteen stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that...more

Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (77 Fed. Reg. 72830) seeking public feedback on Request for Continued Examination (RCE) practice. The notice indicates that the...more

The USPTO is seeking public comments on Request for Continued Examination (RCE) practice. In particular, the USPTO is “soliciting public feedback in an effort to better understand the full spectrum of factors that impact the...more

A recent ruling by the Eastern District of Virginia recently found that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had been incorrectly calculating a patent term adjustment statute concerning a Request for...more

On November 1, 2012, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a decision in Exelixis v. Kappos (Case No. 1:12cv96), rejecting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) interpretation of the...more